Abstract: A stacking device for sheet material such as banknotes and receipts has a stacker drum with a suction opening at a predetermined location on the periphery. The suction opening grips the leading edges of the sheets to be stacked at a first tangential position and releases the sheets against a stopper at a second tangential position. The stacker drum has air openings on the periphery behind the suction opening. The air openings discharge pulsating compressed air to separate the portion of the sheets trailing the leading edges from the drum.

Abstract: To ensure a uniform formation in packets with a predetermined number of elements, of sheet-like elements, for example, paper handkerchieves, two counter-rotating bodies are provided, presenting movable blades which, cooperate to receive each sheet-like element coming from a feeding group. Each pair of blades lays down a sheet-like element on a packet to be formed, on its turn supported by fins carried by belts or chains vertically moving downward, starting from the counter-rotating bodies and synchronically with the latter, in such a way that the packet to be formed lowers until the desired number of elements is received, and it is then ejected parallel to the axes of the rotating bodies.

Abstract: A stack of sheets such as documents to be fed one by one from the lowermost sheet is clamped between a lower feeding roller rotated in a given direction and an upper pressing roller whose shaft is loosely inserted in an elongated hole formed in a bearing secured to a rotatable arm. A coiled spring is connected between a free end of the arm and a fixed body of the apparatus to rotate the arm in such a manner that the pressing roller is urged against the stack of sheets with a large force due to the strong restoring force of the spring and the gravitational force of the pressing roller. A stopper plate is arranged in a rotational movement path of the arm at such a position that when a thickness of the stacked sheets has decreased to a given value, the rotation of the arm is inhibited by an engagement of the arm and stopper plate.

Abstract: A paper feeder including a sucker frame, a separation suction device mounted on the sucker frame and substantially vertically movable for picking up stacked sheets one at a time, and a transport suction device mounted on the sucker frame and substantially horizontally movable for transferring the picked-up sheet from the separation suction device.

Abstract: The invention relates to stacking flat articles, such as tube sections, bags or sacks, with two spaced apart hubs arranged to rotate in synchronism on a horizontal axis and carrying respective spiders, the arms of which are equally angularly spaced and on their leading sides, in the sense of rotation, carry suction nozzles, with a receiving or carrying conveyor for the article disposed between the arms adjacent to the horizontal plane which contains the horizontal axis and protrude beyond the articles to such an extent that the side edges of the articles extend, at least in part, to the planes in which the arms are rotatable. A series of needles are disposed on the side of the axis which is opposite to the receiving conveyor and are closely spaced from the arms of one of the spiders and extend approximately parallel to that one of the arms which is in a vertical position, to enter perforations of the articles as the articles are delivered by the arms.

Abstract: A sheet material feeding apparatus has a circulating support board for carrying sheets from a sheet receiving station to a sheet delivering station. The apparatus consists of at least one support board and a first inclined board at the receiving station for supporting the sheets as tilted from the vertical in the order of supply with the first supplied sheet at the bottom, a second inclined board at the delivering station for supporting the sheets as tilted in the opposite direction from the vertical with the order of the sheets being upside down from that at the receiving station, and structure for moving the support board so as to follow a circulatory path starting from and returning to the receiving station via the delivering station. The sheets can be delivered one by one in the order of supply to the receiving station with no rubbing and resultant scratching of the surfaces of the sheets.

Abstract: An apparatus for withdrawing single newspapers from the bottom of a stack and presenting them in an overlapped stream to a conveyor for additional processing. The apparatus includes a plurality of gripper members mounted in first and second groups for opposed linear reciprocation on individual rotatably driven stem valves disposed in spaced and parallel relation. The stem valves are operatively connected to a vacuum source and are effective in causing first one group of gripper members and then the other to grip and remove the bottom paper from the stack. To facilitate removal of each paper the apparatus includes a device for effecting a floating action on the individual papers within the stack and vacuum controlled fingers for initiating partial separation of the bottom paper from the stack immediately prior to its withdrawal by the gripper members.

Abstract: A sheet registration device for receiving a sheet from a sheet input and delivering the sheet to a sheet output, while laterally aligning the sheet prior to delivery to the sheet output, includes an endless belt conveyor which extends between the sheet input and the sheet output, and an alignment surface extending generally parallel to and to one side of the conveyor. An alignment arrangement, including a plurality of parallel vacuum belts and a cooperating plenum, is positioned adjacent the conveyor and is skewed with respect to the conveyor. The alignment arrangement engages a sheet as it is carried by the conveyor and transports the sheet laterally such that a lateral edge of the sheet contacts the alignment surface. The vacuum belts define relatively large openings through which the partial vacuum from the plenum is applied, such that the vacuum belts effectively engage a sheet only during periods in which substantially all of the openings are covered by the sheet.

Abstract: A paper feeder comprises a frame, a separation suction device mounted on the frame and substantially vertically movable for picking up stacked sheets one at a time, a transport suction device mounted on the frame and substantially horizontally movable for transferring the picked-up sheet from the separation suction device, and an adjustment device for adjusting the separation suction device tiltably back and fourth and laterally.